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0474	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

of the Helmand.⁴ Towards the close of the eighteenth century Malik Bahrām Khān, then ruling
over Sīstān under Afghān suzerainty, among other irrigation works assured a supply of water to
the old channel of the Rūd-i-biyābān sufficient to permit of the renewed cultivation of portions
of the southern delta near Hauzdār and Machī in the north and Rāmrūd in the south.⁵ But the
recovery of this ground was of short duration, and early in the nineteenth century the whole of it was
finally abandoned to the desert, together with what cultivation had survived along the Rūd-i-
biyābān near the ruins of Trākun and Gina on the Afghān side of the boundary.

Successive
periods of
abandon-
ment of
S. delta. It is directly due to this present complete abandonment and to the effect of previous similar
periods of relinquishment, when this region was completely bereft of surface water from the
Helmand, that archaeological evidence of occupation at widely different periods can be traced
here with greater clearness than is possible in the main Helmand delta to the north. The remains
of approximately the same period are not confined to a particular neighbourhood, but can be found,
distributed in layers as it were, over the greater portion of the area. Hence in describing the
remains surveyed by me it will be convenient to follow a quasi-historical grouping rather than
a purely topographical one. We may well start with the latest ruins ; for it was these that I saw
first, and their date is attested by living memory.

Trace of un-
finished
Kārēz. Proceeding on December 19th by the high road leading south from the present 'capital' of
Persian Sīstān, I noticed with interest the striking resemblance of the belt of gravel-covered Dasht
crossed beyond the cultivated ground of Lūtak village to the tongues of 'Sai' fringing the terminal
basin of the Su-lo-ho. Lines of isolated clay terraces or Mesas rise near the plateau edge, and here,
too, they seemed to me to owe their existence to the combined effect of wind-erosion and water
action.⁶ About 7 miles beyond Lūtak the caravan track across the plateau runs parallel to little
decayed earth heaps of circular shape and low in the middle, which my guides pointed out as
spoil heaps of an old Kārēz.⁷ This Kārēz was said to have been intended to carry water towards
the southern delta from near the village of Warmāl, but never to have been finished.

Ruins of
Hauzdār. Beyond the plateau the road crosses a wide bay of the area annually inundated from the
Hāmūn, and then reaches the ruins of Hauzdār, enclosed by a quadrangular circumvallation.
This has its gate on the east face, which measures about 140 yards. Apart from a domed water
reservoir (hauz), which has given the place its name, the interior is occupied by domed mud hovels
clustering around a dilapidated mansion ; their construction and condition bear out the local view
that occupation of the fortified village continued till cultivation on this tract was abandoned early
in the last century. The few scattered ruins, including a high windmill of the usual Sīstān type,
to be seen within a radius of about 2 miles to the north and east of Hauzdār, proved all of the same
late origin. In all of them the bricks are of small size and the arches and vaults of the regular
Western type. The same holds good also of the ruins of the small fortified village known as Kundar
(Fig. 490), situated about 4 miles to the SW.

Remains of
Ākhur-i-
Rustam. But a low mound in the same direction rising above the bare flat plain at a distance of about
1¼ miles from Hauzdār (Fig. 489) was found to bear remains of manifest antiquity. They are called
Ākhur-i-Rustam, being popularly supposed to have served as a manger for Rustam's giant steed.
A central mound of brickwork (see the sketch-plan, Pl. 57) rises to a height of about 23 feet above
the top of the low mound, but is too badly decayed to allow of determination of the original shape

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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